On Wed, 2 Oct 2019 at 14:00, Samuel Sieb <samuel@sieb.net> wrote:
On 10/2/19 3:34 AM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Tue, 2019-10-01 at 16:04 -0700, Samuel Sieb wrote:
>>> Powerline Ethernet (usually called Homeplug -
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePlug) is my standard answer for
>>> people who want to extend their home network. Very easy to install and
>>> much cheaper than the alternatives (not counting wireless "extenders"
>>> which are basically a kludge). The downside is that unlike mesh systems
>>> they don't tend to merge everything into one network, relying on your
>>> WiFi device to hop from one to another.
>>
>> If you have your access points all configured with the same SSID and
>> password, there is no difference with a mesh system other than better
>> speed.
>
> I know that's true in theory, but in practice I've had problems with
> it. I assume this is one difference between consumer-grade APs and
> "managed" devices intended for corporate networks.

In practice, I haven't had any issues with it. :-)
I have setup wifi in a school with currently around 15 access points and
there is no problem roaming around.  They are all consumer routers
reflashed with openwrt.  They used to be all TP-Link, but now I'm
starting to switch to Ubiquiti.  The whole school has both 2.4 and 5GHz
available on the same SSID and different SSIDs for different groups.

Openwrt is a step up from most consumer router software.  Hardware 
reliability (particularly the power dongles) could be an issue, but with
cheap hardware you can afford to have a couple spares ready to go.
If the units use power dongles it might be worth investing in higher
quality power supplies so you don't end up with spares that don't
have power supplies. 

--
George N. White III